As the US and Europe continue to battle with ongoing financial problems—is now the time to go where not many have gone before?

With around 140 countries considered frontier markets—regions trading at a 25 percent discount to more popular emerging ones—CNBC explores the best opportunities for prospective investors.

Chief Investment Officer at the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, Alan Durrant, explained why a frontier market like the UAE may have issues, but it’s got the cash behind it that other parts of the world are struggling to find.

"An MSCI [emerging markets index] upgrade on its own is not going to be a panacea for all the ills of local markets. We are still dealing here with markets with very low liquidity," he said, admitting that the United Arab Emirates were not ready for an elevation to emerging market status.

But he continued: "There is another story in terms of the frontier markets in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), and that’s income—something which a lot of people are overlooking."

As well as bonds with "really quite decent fundamentals backing them," Durrant said that the frontier investor "can buy property … which at the moment in Dubai is yielding eight or nine percent. And even in the equity market—probably the last place that people would think of looking—the income yield is six or seven percent. And that to us is pretty powerful."